Eric Kasperowicz

ADAMS TWP — While it wasn’t in his immediate plans, Eric Kasperowicz is back in the high school game.

Before being officially hired as Mars Area High School’s new head football coach during Tuesday’s school board meeting, the North Hills graduate figured on returning to the University of Pittsburgh’s staff as a voluntary assistant. He served as the Panthers’ quality control coach and was an offensive analyst last season.

“That was a blast,” Kasperowicz, 45, said. “Being along for the ride to an ACC championship was a wonderful experience. I’m so grateful to Coach (Pat) Narduzzi for that opportunity.

“Coming back to Pitt for a second season was 100 percent the plan.”

Kasperowicz is a longtime teacher at North Hills High School. He spent 20 years as a physical education teacher and has been a GATE (gifted education) teacher for the past three years.

He has 23 years of coaching experience, all but one of those being at the high school level. His eight years as head coach at Pine-Richland resulted in 85 wins, four WPIAL championships and a pair of state titles. He also served as an assistant football coach at North Hills for 10 years.

“This was a family decision for me to apply for the Mars job,” Kasperowicz said. “Honestly, it was a no-brainer. I’ve had a home in the Mars area since 2005. We’ve got two kids coming trough the school system here.

“One thing about coaching college football, it takes you away from home a lot. Now I’m going to be around for my kids’ education and that means a lot to me.”

Kasperowicz’s son, Eric, will be a freshman at Mars in the fall. He is a quarterback. Kasperowicz’s daughter is in seventh grade and plays lacrosse.

Mars does not have a freshman football team. Kasperowicz admits that’s on his to-do list.

“It’s not part of my job description, but I’d love to bring that freshman team back,” he said. “Mars hasn’t had one for one or two years or so.”

Kasperowicz replaces Scott Heinauer, Mars’ current athletic director who won 203 games and took the Planets to the WPIAL playoffs 16 consecutive years before ending that streak last season. Mars consistently used the Wing-T under Heinauer’s guidance.

Heinauer could not be reached for comment.

Kasperowicz said he plans a complete overhaul of the program.

“Scott and I are good friends,” he said. “He did a great job here, and I’m planning on building off his success. My offense is completely different, though. We’ll be starting over that way and in other ways.

“We’ll assess the talent, see what we’ve got, what mode of play suits them, and go from there.”

Mars has a number of assistant football coaches who have been with the program for a number of years. Kasperowicz plans to meet with them and “see if some have interest in staying on with us.”

He also plans to bring in a number of his former assistants at Pine-Richland.

“School districts have different policies in the number of paid assistant coaching positions they have for football,” he said. “I haven’t explored that yet here. I don’t know how many coaches they will allow me to have, but I know I’m bringing some of those (Pine-Richland) guys in.”

Kasperowicz added that he is committed to the Mars program and said that winning a state championship is the goal.

“I’m here at least until my kids go through,” he said. “At that point, maybe another college opportunity arises and I choose to go that route. If not ... There’s nothing wrong with coaching high school football in Western Pennsylvania.”

Kasperowicz was a quarterback at North Hills in his playing days, throwing for 6,869 yards and leading the Indians to WPIAL and PIAA titles in 1993. He went on to play linebacker and defensive back at Pitt, getting into coaching immediately after graduating from college.